AMRC pioneers degree-level apprenticeships after £1.6m injection

THE University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre is launching advanced manufacturing undergraduate and postgraduate pathways in higher education designed for apprentices.

Successful apprentices will be jointly-funded in higher education by business.

The new educational pathway will be developed after a £1.6m HEFCE funding award.

Universities Minister Jo Johnson visited the AMRC and announced the collaboration, intended to link businesses and educational establishments even further.

Mr Johnson, who also visited the university’s £5.7m Materials Engineering and Research Institute laboratories, said: “To ensure that productivity grows nationally we need to empower cities like Sheffield to reach their full potential. Productivity here is currently less than half that in Oxford and London. Research and innovation have a critical role to play in plugging these productivity gaps around the country.”

The traditional route to becoming an incorporated or chartered engineer is through GCSEs, A-levels, a traditional academic BEng or MEng degree at university and then employment.

The new, high quality, technical, vocational route into university, which is a development of the University’s successful AMRC advanced apprentices scheme, will feature a curriculum in advanced manufacturing while meeting the needs of employers.

Professor Keith Ridgway, Executive Dean of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing said: “The new pathway will be delivered with a curriculum which will provide academic rigour alongside practical skills and high quality employer-led training that is designed to meet business needs and create the professional, creative engineers of tomorrow.

“The innovative new model of work-based learning is expected to attract different groups of students than traditional academic models, increasing diversity within cohorts and ultimately within the profession itself.”

Professor Madeleine Atkins, chief executive of HEFCE commented: “HEFCE is pleased to support the Sheffield project from our Catalyst Fund, addressing as it does our priorities to support the Productivity Plan, including links with Catapults, technical education and anchor role of universities.”